Artificial christmas tree and method of making the same



April 5, 1966 G. L. RAYMOND ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 26, 1962 Gerald LRaymond INVENTOR.

BY grfw April 1966 G. L. RAYMOND 3,244,577

ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed April 26, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 36 Fig. 9.

: Gerald LRaymond INVENTOR.

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April 5, 1966 G. L. RAYMOND ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed April 26, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Gerald LRaymond ww vw G INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,244,577 ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE AND METHOD 9F MAKING THE SAME Gerald Lyle Raymond, 12224 Nyanza Road, Tacoma, Wash. Filed Apr. 26, 1962, Ser. No. 190,405 7 Claims. (Cl. 161-22) This invention relates to decorative articles such as artificial Christmas trees, wreaths, garlanding, and the like, as well as to method and apparatus for their production.

Although artificial Christmas trees, wreaths and garlanding of diverse types heretofore have been made using various methods and apparatus, most, if not all of such products have been characterized by one or more disadvantageous features including unattractive appearance, lack of durability and stability, difficulty or impossibility of cleaning, inflammability, excessive bulk for transportation and storage, and high cost of manufacture.

In addition, some of them have been made of aluminum or other metals and hence have possessed such a high degree of electrical conductivity that ornamental electric lights cannot be used upon them without the danger of electric shock.

Accordingly it is the general object of the present invention to provide artificial Christmas trees, wreaths and other decorative articles having a high degree of beauty; which are stable, durable and fireproof; which can be cleaned easily and eficiently; which can be folded readily into small compass for transportation and storage; and which are relatively inexpensive to manufacture.

It is another important object of this invention to provide artificial Christmas trees, Wreaths and the like which may be decorated safely with electric lights, without hazard of shock.

The manner in which the foregoing and other objects of the present invention are accomplished will be apparent from the accompanying specification and claims considered together with the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view in side elevation illustrating the first stage of manufacture of the herein described articles, by one method;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one of the branch members illustrated schematically in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view similar to FIG. 3 but illustrating a second stage in the manufacture of the herein described articles;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic views in plan and transverse section, respectively, of a third stage of the herein described method, FIG. 6 being taken along line 66 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken along line 7-7 of FIG. 5 and illustrating in greater detail the effects occurring during the stage of manufacture illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are schematic plan views illustrating additional steps in the method of manufacture of the herein described articles, FIG. 8 illustrating a method for covering the exposed trunk and stems of an artificial Christmas tree and forming the tip thereof, and FIG. 9 illustrating a manner of concealing and decorating the ends of the branches of the tree;

FIG. 10 is a view in elevation of an artificial Christmas tree made by the sequence of steps illustrated in the preceding figures;

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FIG. 11 is a view in side elevation, similar to FIG. 1 but illustrating a lay-up for an artificial Christmas tree of greater height;

FIGS. 12 and 13 are views in plan and side elevation, respectively, of apparatus which may be employed in manufacturing the decorative articles of the present inventiog, by the method illustrated in the preceding figures; an

FIG. 14 is a transverse sectional view taken along line 14-14 of FIG. 13.

The construction and character of the artificial Christmas trees and other decorative articles which are the subject of my invention may best 'be understood with reference to the method steps employed in their manufacture, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-10 inclusive of the drawings.

Basically the articles of the invention are formed from but four classes of structural elements, i.e. two or more Wires or other stifl'ly flexible stem members, a plurality of branch members, an elongated member of branch material adapted to be wound spirally about the stem members to conceal the same, and, if an artificial Christmas tree is contemplated, a base to support it.

In the first step of the fabricating procedure, one of the stem members or wires 10 is tensioned between a pair of releasable grips 12.

Next, a plurality of branch members comprising stiffly flexible units covered with decorative material are reversely bent, hairpin fashion. Although various types of branch members may be employed, the use of those illustrated in FIG. 2 is contemplated particularly. As will be seen from this figure, each member 14 comprises two wires or other stiff, elongated units 16 twisted together and securing between them a multiplicity of filaments 18 radiating outwardly in all directions.

Although various filamentous materials such as cloth thread, metal thread, plastic thread, and the like may be used, it is preferred to use fiberglass filaments because of their beauty, the effectiveness with which they may be dyed different colors, their durability, and the ease with which they may be cleaned. Also, they are noninflammable and nonconductors of electricity.

The reversely bent branch members are placed in clusters spaced apart along the length of stem member 10 as indicated in FIG. 1. Thus, three long branchforming members are placed near one end of the stem in a cluster 20, a pair of slightly shorter branch-forming members are placed at an intermediate position in a cluster 22, and two branch-forming members which are still shorter are placed adjacent the other end of the stern member in a cluster 24. In the final article, these clusters will form whorls of 6, 4 and 4 branches, respectively, in the tapered arrangement which is characteristic of a coniferous tree.

As viewed in end elevation, the clusters have the appearance indicated in FIG. 3. The next step is to engage them with the stem member in such a manner that in the final article they will be locked together and remain stiflly erect in any desired position.

This is accomplished by bending the two segments of each reversely bent branch member toward and past each other so that a loop is formed completely wrapped around, or encircling, the stem member. This effect is shown in FIG. 4.

The next step in the procedure is to place a second wire or other stifily flexible stem member 26 between releasable grips 28 so that it lies adjacent and substantially parallel to its companion stem member on the side opposite the loops of the encircling branch members (FIG. 4). This is important if maximum interlocking of the branches and stem is to be achieved.

If desired, spring clamp members 30 may be afiixed at this stage to each cluster, near the ends, to insure that the component branches will remain close together in their proper relationship to each other and to the branches of the adjacent clusters.

In the next stage of the sequence, the two stem members 10, 26 are intertwisted, as by rotating in unison one pair of grips 12, 28 without rotating the companion pair. Three important results ensue.

First, the branch members are locked securely between the intertwisted spirals of the stem members. As seen in FIG. 5, they become spaced very slightly from each other and are so interlocked that they can not move in any direction, either longitudinally or laterally.

Second, the branch members are rotated relative to each other to conform to the contour of the stem spirals so that they radiate out from the stern in all directions, as do the branches of a tree. This effect is shown particularly in FIG. 6.

The third effect is to wedge and compress some of the fiberglass or other filaments 18 so that they form compacted, electrically insulating mats 18a between the stem wires, and between the stem wires and branch wires. This effect is illustrated in FIG. 7. In this way each of the branch wires is insulated so effectively from the rest of the article that ornamental electric lights, for example Christmas tree lights, may be mounted on the article without danger of electrical shock.

In the next step of the procedure, a length of material 32 may be wound spirally about the assembly in the manner illustrated in FIG. 2 before releasing grips 12, 28. The material used for this purpose may, if desired, comprise a long piece of the same material as is used to make branches 14. When applied spirally, it covers up the exposed sections of the stern, i.e. of the tree trunk in case an artificial Christmas tree is being made.

Also, a portion of the covering material 32 may be left extending beyond one end of the twisted assembly. This extension then may be bent outwardly substantially parallel with the stem to form the tip of the tree.

To conceal and decorate the ends of the branches, they are bent reversely or as shown in FIG. 9, dipped in an adhesive 34. The adhesive-dipped ends then are dipped into a glittering, flaky material 36 of selected color, to form brightly Spangled tips.

If it is desired to make a wreath, an assembly with branches of suitable length may be removed from the grips, arranged in a circle with the ends overlapped, and the ends fastened together by means of looped tie wires or otherwise.

On the other hand, if it is desired to make a Christmas tree, an assembly containing branches, graduated in length and arranged in a typical, tapered tree-like arrangement may be provided. The bottom end of this assembly may be dipped in adhesive and inserted in a suitable base 38.

The resulting product then has the appearance illustrated in FIG. 10. It consists of a rigid stem 40 formed by intertwisting stem members 10, 26; a plurality of whorls of branches 20, 22, 24 developed by twisting the clusters of branch members 20, 22, 24 of FIG. 1; a stem covering 32 wrapped around the stem to conceal it; and an upwardly extending projection of the covering forming the tip of the tree.

If it is desired to make a larger tree, the length of the stem wires may be increased, as may the number of clusters of branch members. A typical assembly for making such a tree is illustrated in FIG. 11.

It comprises a first stern member 42 tensioned between grips 12 and supporting at spaced intervals a plurality of clusters of branch members 44, 46, 48, 50, 52 containing 4, 4, 4, 3 and 3 reversely-bent, branch-forming members, respectively. Since in making a tree of this size the stem wires necessarily must be quite heavy and stiff, it it preferred to form the tip of the tree by including in the assembly a single, crook-shaped tip member 54 which may be of the same gauge and construction as the branch members.

A second stem wire 56 then is tensioned between grips 28. Clamps, not illustrated but similar to clamps 30 of FIG. 4, are applied to each cluster to restrain it, and one set of the grips rotated to intertwist the assembly in the manner described above. The same sequence then may be followed for completing the tree, with the exception that the spiralled stem covering need not extend upwardly to form the tip, since member 54 may be bent upwardly to serve that function.

In a similar manner, other assemblies may be put together to create trees, wreaths and garlanding of desired size and appearance.

APPARATUS Apparatus suitable for use in the manufacture of the articles described above, rapidly on a large commercial scale, is illustrated in FIGS. l2l4.

As previously described, grips 12, 12 and 28, 28 are provided for releasably holding stem wires 10, 26 respectively. In FIG. 12, however, the grips are illustrated rotated 90 from their positions of FIGS. 1 and 10, FIG. 12 being in plan.

Although various types of grips may be employed, it is preferred to use adjustable, plier-like grips, the construction of which is evident particularly in FIG. 14. These enable rapid clamping and release of the wires, as well as precise adjustment to wires of varying gauge.

Grips 12, 28 on the rotating side of the assembly, i.e. on the left as seen in FIGS. 12 and 13, are fixed to a fiat bar 60 to the outer end of which is welded a transverse plate 61. In the upper surface of the bar there are a pair of spaced guideways 62, 64.

Guideway 62 is aligned with the jaws of grip member 12, and guideway 64 with the jaws of grip 28. Each is dimensioned to receive a segment of one of stem members 10, 26, respectively, and serves the function of preventing it from twisting out the grips during the twisting operation. This is of particular importance when stem wires of heavy gauge are used.

The outer end of mounting bar 60 is bolted to a clevis 66, the base of which is fixed to the shaft of a gear reducer 68. The latter in turn is driven by a variable speed electric motor 70 and accordingly rotates the left hand grip assembly slowly at a controlled and uniform rate.

Grips 12, 28 on the other side of the apparatus, i.e. on the right side as viewed in FIGS. 12 and 13, do not rotate but are mounted for longitudinal movement as required to accommodate shortening of the stem members during the twisting operation.

Accordingly, they are fixed rigidly to a mounting bar 72 to the inner end of which is welded a plate 74, provided with guideways 76, 78. These are aligned with grips 12, 28 respectively and also with guideways 62, 64 in the left-hand grip assembly. As in the case of the latter guideways, their function is to prevent the stiff stem members from being wrenched out of the grips as they are twisted together. The outer end of bar 72 is bolted to a clevis which, in turn, is fastened to the end of a tongue 82.

Tongue 82 works in a guidway in plate 84. Its outer end is fastened to an axle 86 which mounts rotatably a pair of wheels 88. These run on tracks 90, forming a carriage which prevents the rotation of the grip members to which it is attached, while still permitting their longitudinal movement.

Tensioning means are provided for tensioning stem members 10, 26 so they are loaded and twisted together.

This prevents them from double winding, i.e. overlapping each other as they are wound. It insures also that they will intertwist equally without one of the wires remaining straight and the other wrapping around it.

In the illustrated form of the invention the tensioning means comprises a freely hanging weight 92 attached to one end of a cable or other flexible member 94. The cable passes over a pulley 96 and is fastened by means of set screw 98 to a perforated post 100 depending from axle 86.

Means also are provided for releasing the tension applied by weight 92 when it is desired to engage or release the stem members from the grips. Hence there is provided a foot operated lever 102, one end of which is pivoted to the frame of the apparatus. One end of a cable or other flexible link 104 is fastened adjacent the other end of the foot lever and passes about a pulley 106. The other end of the cable is fastened to the carriage, preferably by being formed as an extension of cable 94, passing completely through the perforation in post 100.

Limit means also are provided for limiting the degree of intertwisting of the stem wires to the predetermined value. This value is critical since the wires must be twisted together tightly enough to integrate the assembly and securely interlock the branch members and stem. On the other hand, overtwisting obviously will weaken the structure.

The extent of forward travel of the carriage assembly including tongue 82 and axle 36, caused by shortening of the stem wires as they are twisted together, gives a measure of the degree of twisting. Accordingly, there is provided a limit switch 108, adjustably mounted lengthwise of the unit by being bolted to a bracket 110 containing a longitudinal slot 112 through which the bolts extend.

A scale of limit switch positions, not illustrated, is provided on the face of bracket 110, each position being determined by trial and error as being an appropriate limit of travel of the carriage assembly when making a tree or other article of given length.

Limit switch 108 is in an electric circuit with motor 70, and its contact member 114 is positioned for engagement with a post 116 extending upwardly from axle 86. Hence when contact is made, switch 108 shuts off motor 70 and the twisting together of the wires is terminated.

The operation of the apparatus of FIGS. 12-14 is as follows:

First, stem member is tensioned between grips 12. This is accomplished by depressing lever 102, advancing the carriage, inserting the left hand end of the wire in left hand grip 12, running it through guides 62 and 76, gripping the right hand end of the wire in right hand grip 12, and then releasing lever 102.

Clusters of branch members 20, 22, 24 are placed over the stem wire in locations determined by a scale or jig as shown in FIG. 1.

The branch wires are bent toward and opposite each other in the direction indicated by the arrows in FIG. 3 until they completely encircle the stem wire as seen in FIG. 4. Their ends then are clamped together by means of clamps 30 to prevent them from wandering longitudinally of the wire.

The ends of the other stern wire 26 next are run through guides 64, 78 and clamped between grips 28.

Motor 70 then is started and the left hand grip assembly rotated through gear box 68 at the predetermined rotational speed.

As the stem wires are twisted together, they interlock the branch wires in the manner shown in FIG. 5. At the same time, as the branch wires conform to the contour of the spiral stem wires, they are shifted so that they radiate outwardly in all directions as shown in FIG. 6.

The twisting continues until contact post 116 on the carriage hits contact element 114 of limit switch 108. This stops motor 70 at the precise point at which the 6 optimum degree of intertwisting of the stem wires has been achieved as required securely to interlock the branch wires without weakening the stem wires unduly.

The fabricated assembly then is removed from the grips and processed as described above to complete the tree or other decorative article.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention herein shown and described is to be taken as a preferred example of the same and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of my invention or the scope of the subjoined claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A decorative Christmas tree having a stem having a pair of tightly intertwisted stifl? stem wires and, at spaced intervals along the stem, a plurality of clusters of branches, each cluster comprising a plurality of branches arranged in pairs, each pair comprising a length of tightly intertwisted stifi'ly bendable branch wires and a multiplicity of decorative radially extending filaments gripped between the branch wires, the length of each branch wire being wrapped intermediate its ends around one of the stern wires, the plurality of branches of each cluster being locked in place adjacent each other by the intertwisted spirals of the stern and with the two segments of each branch radiating outwardly from the stem in directions different from the other branches of the cluster.

2. The decorative article of claim 1 wherein the decorative radially extending filaments on the branch wires are fiberglass filaments and wherein some of said fiberglass filaments are squeezed between the stem wires and branch wires, serving thereby as electrical insulation material.

3. The decorative article of claim 1 and including a base, one end of the stem being fastened to the base and including a length of filament-covered branch wire wound spirally about the stem to conceal the same.

4. The method of making decorative articles which comprises supporting horizontally by its ends a first stiffly flexible stem member, reversely bending a plurality of stifily flexible branch members, placing the reversely-bent, stiffly flexible branch members in clusters at spaced intervals along the length of the first stern member, each cluster comprising a plurality of the branch members disposed adjacent each other bending the two lengths of each of the reversely bent branch members toward and past each other, thereby wrapping the branch members about the first stem member intermediate their ends, arranging a second stiflly flexible stem member adjacent the first stem member, and intertwisting the two stem members for locking the branch members between the resulting twisted spirals in radially extending relation thereto with each branch pair of a cluster extending radially in directions diflerent from the other branch pair of said cluster.

5. The method of claim 4 including the step of clamping together the members of each cluster of branch members during the intertwisting step, thereby preventing them from wandering and retaining them in the desired spaced relation to each other.

6. The method of claim 4 including the step of spiralling a length of branch member material about the intertwisted stem members to conceal them.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the stem members comprise stiflly flexible wires and the branch members comprise intertwisted stifily flexible wires having a multiplicity of fiberglass filaments secured between them, and including the step of dipping the ends of the branch wires in adhesive and thereafter in decorative flake material to conceal said ends.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS (Other references on following page) UNITED 7 8 STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS Bohm 41--10 466,004 10/1951 Italy. Bates 140-66 XR 501,882 11/1954 Italy. Trimpe 4115 Franke 41 10 5 OTHER REFERENCES Kelman 41 10 The Feather Festooning Article: book A, 1950, pp. Houle 161 12 XR 1-15 relied on. Franke 4110 Slayter et aL JACOB H. STEINBERG, Primary Examiner, Kafka et a1. 161- XR 10 ALEXANDER WYMAN, Examiner. Raymond et a1. 931.5 XR 

1. A DECORATIVE CHRISTMAS TREE HAVING A STEM HAVING A PAIR OF TIGHTLY INTERTWISTED STIFF STEM WIRED AND, AT SPACED INTERVALS ALONG THE STEM, A PLURALITY OF CLUSTERS OF BRANCHES, EACH CLUSTER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF BRANCHES ARRANGED IN PAIRS, EACH PAIR COMPRISING A LENGTH OF TIGHTLY INTERTWISTED STIFFY BENDABLE BRANCH WIRES AND A MULTIPLICITY OF DEOCRATIVE RADIALLY EXTENDING FILAMENTS GRIPPED BETWEEN THE BRANCH WIRES, THE LENGTH OF EACH BRANCH WIRE BEING WRAPPED INTERMEDIATE ITS ENDS AROUND ONE OF THE STEM WIRES, THE PLAURALITY OF BRANCHES OF EACH CLUSTER BEING 